While I am certainly full on gaming as of late, I’ve begun to keenly miss The Secret World. Over the past several months, our regular group has dwindled in both size and focus, popping up only to tackle the new missions and then disappearing until the next ones came again. While this is fine for what it is, I’ve had a strong desire to go back into the game and see if I could do it again but better.

Thus, the idea for a new project called The Secret Adventures was born. The concept here is that I’ll be creating a brand-new character, an Illumanti (mostly for the flavor text I haven’t fully experienced) who will use blades and assault rifle based on this Wolverine regen build. I chose that because I want something that can handle the game’s many packs of mobs while keeping survivability high. This character will then be going through the entire solo game in an attempt to finish every main mission and side mission.

I won’t be doing full reviews of each mission or walkthroughs (as others have covered those in far more detail), but simply taking notes, observations, and screenshots to relay back to you. If you’ve never played TSW or gotten through all of the zones, this series could be a way to experience it vicariously. I want to keep it entertaining and observational, not necessarily informative. Hopefully the combination of a new build, a fresh character, and the allure of documenting this journey will overcome The Secret World’s alt-adversive nature.

Let’s get started!

Opening cutscene

I forgot how awesomely creepy this opening sequence is. Knowing what I know now about the game, hearing the two sides try to woo you and seeing the bee go into my mouth for the first time gives me goosebumps.

The TV offscreen talks about the infection in Tokyo and the Orochi tower… which we’re just now starting to get to in the game.

So my character is infected by the bees and turned into one of the anima people (I’m still not sure how or why I’m chosen for this). The opening scene shows a week of time passing while my character (Syppi) gets used to her new powers. It’s always troubled me that she doesn’t bother to clean up her place, even after a week.

I like the nod to The Longest Journey with “Arcadia / Stark” on the poster.

And a recruiter for the Illuminati comes by to pull me in. Well girl, time to go face down nightmares and incredibly frustrating quests!

No Sleep Til Brooklyn (story quest, tutorial)

This mission is nice to get bearings in NYC, but as I’m trying to get to Kingsmouth as fast as possible to really begin this series, I’m going to blitz through it.

A lot of UI elements are disabled at the start and slowly introduced over the tutorial’s progress. I can’t access the item store yet, which is a bummer since I want to give her a new outfit.

This is about the easiest mission in the game right here. Follow some security cameras to underground tunnels, follow signs to the Illuminati’s Labyrinth, and then get knocked out by the “pink noise.”

Syppi wakes up in a medical chair, freaking out as the bees rewrite her body. Then Zurn (a wacked-out Illuminati doc) tells her that she’s going to have an out-of-body experience to complete the process and experience what happened in Tokyo.

Ground Zero (story quest, tutorial)

Ground Zero is fully skippable, but I’ll go through it for the story elements and because it’s more relevant as of late.

Hey it’s Sarah before she went fully insane! Hi Sarah!

Apart from teaching the bare basics of combat, this mission does a great job to introduce the Filth during the opening days of the Tokyo epidemic. It’s a series of subway station set pieces that have pretty cool fights.

Hilariously — when compared to the rest of this game — you can’t actually die during these fights. If your health goes below 375 it bumps right back up. TSW giving you false hope that the game will be easy.

Sarah gets separated from the group and then encounters a platform that extends into the cosmos. She faints. Still don’t know exactly what that was about.

It’s kind of funny how my starter set of gear puts me at pretty much the same exact health that my endgame character has (~2000 health). TSW doesn’t really do the typical stat progression.

The Labyrinth is an incredibly fascinating place — I really wish we got to see more of it. It’s all weird angles and suggestions of massive rooms and long passageways and all sorts of secrets.

Geary is a fan favorite and it’s easy to see why. She’s fast-talking with lots of vivid metaphors and a business-bottom-line attitude. Just watching her character move about as she talks shows you how great TSW does natural body movement and gestures (less so with natural-looking faces). I like when she walks her fingers across the desk.

From Geary’s office, it’s a hop, skip, and a jump into Argartha and then through a portal to Kingsmouth. Time to begin the real game!

I seem to be the only who thinks Kirsten Geary is highly overrated. She has her moments, but more often than not, I find her more grating than funny.

That said, some of the other Illuminati NPCs are pretty fun. I like Zurn and Cassini a lot, and the Pyramidion is just sheer brilliance.

@Doyce: Server choice is almost completely meaningless in TSW, since pretty much everything in the game is cross-server one way or another. That said, I’m on Arcadia (RP), and it seems pretty active, so if you’re in the market for a good RP server, I’d go with it.